"The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven" by Kevin and Alex Malarkey was a fascinating book.  I love to read, but it often takes me a couple of weeks to read a book.  I literally could not put this book down and I read it in two days.     

The story begins when a father and son get in a terrible car accident.  Alex, the son suffers an internal decapitation (meaning his head was only attached to his body by his spinal cord and skin) and ends up in a coma for two months.  During these two months God worked many miracles in Alex's life, both physically and spiritually.

This book speaks about many of the medical miracles that occurred...but also about heaven, angels, spiritual warfare, God, Jesus, and even Satan.  This book is an easy read, and will pull you in from the first sentence all the way to the last.  I highly recommend this book to anyone with or without children and to anyone who is or isn't a believer. 

You can click on the picture above to purchase the book from Amazon.

Dale is a little puppy dog who showed up at our house a couple of weeks ago.  Brady  wanted to get a puppy and had been begging me to get a JRT (Jack Russell Terrier) for about 6 months now.  I kept saying no...hello have you seen the dog we already have?  He is practically a horse!  In my opinion, one horse dog was enough.  But clearly God had other plans, He practically plopped the cutest puppy on our doorstep one day and He knew I woudn't say no. 

I was working one day from home and Brady called me and said that someone had dumped a couple puppies in the old cattle lot.  Calvin, our hired hand on the farm, found them and took them into his home.  His daughter took one puppy and Calvin and his wife were going to take the other one.  Well Calvin and Donna already have two dogs and they decided that three was just too much.  Needless to say, Brady saw the puppy and immediately fell in love, he then brought the pup home for me to "look at" and the next thing you know I was feeding him and we were calling him Dale. 

Well what really happened is a little different.  We heard the other puppy that Calvin's daughter took home looked exactly like a mini Gus (which he does), so Cole (Brady's cousin) looked her up on Facebook to see if she posted any pictures.  Well she did, and we found out some interesting information from her page.  Someone had asked her where she got the puppy and she said "From a lady in Sharpsville, he was free and came with all his first round shots"...WHAT?!!  This is where the digging started and it wasn't too hard to find out where our little Dale came from considering the population of Sharpsville is 607 people. 

Turns out that Calvin's two daughters played a trick on him and they were the ones that put the puppies in the barn in the middle of the night!  One of his daughters lives at home and one doesn't, and the one who lives at home wanted one of the puppies but knew her dad would say no.  What better way to get your dad to say yes to getting a dog than to save a homeless one!?  Well, he still didn't say yes and now we have Dale =)

Brady talked to Calvin's daughter who kept the other puppy and we got all the information about where they came from.  I went and talked to the lady that day.  She has the mama dog and the daddy dog is MIA...she is a single mom and she sleeps around.  Dale's mom is a purebred Walker Coonhound and from the looks of Dale it seems that she got it on with a Boxer. 

Dale has been a good puppy so far, he has had a couple of accidents but otherwise has been very good about doing his business outside.  He can sit, he loves to snuggle, and he is a great little play buddy for Gus.  She still has three puppies available and they all look exactly like Dale, if you are interested just get a hold of me and I will give you all the contact information.

“Petting, scratching, and cuddling a dog could be as soothing to the mind and heart as deep meditation and almost as good for the soul as prayer.” Dean Koontz

This is our first Christmas as a married couple...and let me tell you it has been busy!  With the Peters all living in Indiana and the Werners all living in Illinois, Brady and I do a lot of traveling during the holidays.  We spent Thanksgiving here in Indiana so we are going to spend Christmas in Illinois with my family...I can not wait!  I am so excited to see everyone, I love Christmas at "home" because of watching Christmas Vacation, drinking memosas at Grandma and Poppy's Christmas morning, snuggling with Lucky, seeing all my extended family, waking up on Christmas morning in the house I grew up in, and watching the Bears beat on the Packers!  

I am a huge fan of all the wonderful things that come along with Christmas in America.  Some of my favorite things are all the Christmas traditions, eating Frango mints (yum), eating peppermint ice cream (double yum), drinking Southern Comfort egg nog (triple yum), hearing the fire crackle in the fireplace, hanging the stockings, decorating the Christmas tree, seeing people's kind heards and generosity, listening to Christmas music, and just feeling LOVE everywhere. 

Brady and I decided last year that we were going to get a real tree...we bought it in the Rural King parking lot and we love it!  I don't ever want to get a fake tree, I love stringing the lights, I love how the tree isn't perfect, I love how every year we can get a different type of tree (this year we got a white pine), and I love the way it smells!  Below is a picture of us standing by our tree after we picked it out in the lot =)  Isn't it pretty?

And here it is after we got it home and all decorated! 

And here is Gus taking a long winters nap by the tree =)

Merry Christmas everyone!  Remember Jesus...the reason for the season! 

When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. - Matthew 2:10-11

Last week Brady and I, along with his parents went down to Nashville, Indiana to get a couple days of relaxation before the crazy Christmas holiday.  Brady's parents gave him a gift certificate for a couple nights at a bed and breakfast for his birthday back in October, and I personally think it was a great gift because I got to reap all the benefits.  Nashville is located in south central Indiana, in Brown County.  It is a quaint little town full of shops, bed and breakfasts, and wineries. 

We had such a great time there with Billy and Vonda that we are planning on making it an annual trip.  We spent the majority of our time eating, sleeping, taking baths, shopping, eating more, drinking wine, playing games, and drinking more wine. 

We stayed at the Cornerstone Inn, which was amazing.  It is a bed and breakfast located in the heart of Nashville where the people and the service are outstanding.  There is fresh fruit and baked goods out 24 hours a day, and plenty of games available in the dining room for everyone to play.  The rooms were also amazing; our room had a huge bath tub with jets and a fireplace.  Every room is unique and decorated with antique furniture.  The couple who own the Inn are Christians and they use the bed and breakfast as their way to shine the love of Jesus.  You can just feel the presence of the Holy Spirit all over this place...there was a Life Application Study Bible in every room and in the dining room I overheard the owners talking to a couple about tithing.  I would definitely recommend this B & B to anyone...you can find more information at by clicking on the picture below.

As I mentioned, we played tons of games.  Two of our games were Taboo and Match Mate.  Everyone has heard of Taboo but Match Mate...that's a whole different story.  Brady and I first played it with a couple of our good friends.  It is a game for married couples where you are on a team with your spouse and you compete against the other couple, answering questions that your spouse has previously answered...if you both answer the same thing then you get a point...the couple with the most points wins.  It is so fun, but can get kind of raunchy because every round there is a sensuality question...this is why when you play with your in-laws you need to accompany the game playing with wine drinking. 

Saving the best for last...the wine =)  We went to Brown County Winery and tasted different wines and ended up coming home with 3 bottles. 
1. Vista Red Wine: 100% Concord, like eating grapes  off the vine     
2. Cranberry Apple Wine:  a zesty marriage of cranberries and  Indiana apples, brilliant red and pleasantly tart
3. Red Raspberry Wine: made from pure red raspberries, this ruby red wine is sweet and refreshing, great with chocolate and cheesecake
You can view the entire wine list and even purchase wine online by clicking the picture below.
 

In case anyone didn’t know the Big Easy is New Orleans, Louisana.  The locals call it NOLA, Nawlins, and they are all proud to be part of the "Who Dat Nation" (that is what the Saints fans call themselves).  Brady and I went there for a business trip with my company.  We figured since I had to go anyways, he might as well tag along, we went a couple of days early and stayed one day late so we could check everything out.

New Orleans was a fun city but we don’t plan on ever going back.  The city was very unique and unlike any place either of us had ever traveled to.  The city was alive, it pulsed with music and art.  Many of the streets are constantly closed with bands playing on them, donkeys pulling carriage rides, and palm readers telling people’s destinies.

All in all it was a great trip and I am happy we went.  There were many things we liked about the vacation and some that we didn’t love so much.  I’ll start with what we didn’t like so much.

The Strippers 
-usually this isn’t an issue because we don’t go into strip clubs so we don’t see strippers…well in New Orleans it is a little different story.  Bourbon Street is peppered with strip clubs and cabarets where the naked girls stand in large doorways that face the street and ask men to come in.  I am an extremely open person about nakedness and sex, but I do believe it should be confined to the covenant relationship of marriage and it just grossed me out that these girls were shaking their thang on a busy public street and I am not even kidding, the only thing that was covered up was their lady cha cha.

The Poverty
-There were a lot of homeless people, which is common in most cities so it’s not like we were super shocked.  But one unique thing about the homeless people in New Orleans is that they all had pit bulls.  I love, love, LOVE dogs and have nothing against pit bulls, but I do have something against homeless people who take on the responsibility of having one.  If you can’t afford a house for yourself and food to put in your own mouth, then don’t bring a poor little pup into the mix.  Just a side note on this whole subject…I love to be generous and help people out, especially “the lesser of these” but if your health is good enough to sit on the street and heckle people for handouts, then I am sure you
are capable of getting a job somewhere.

Bourbon Street 
-was extremely filthy.  Yes it was entertaining and had some cool bars and shops, but overall it was pretty nasty.  The cops patrolled the street by horseback.  It didn’t make an already dirty city any cleaner having cops riding around on horses that would crap everywhere.   In addition to the horses, 90% of the people walking around on the street are hammered…you are even allowed to have open containers on the street so many of the bars sell cocktails “to-go”.  When the drunk people barf on the street in addition to the crap that the horses already left behind it's not a good mix.  Also let’s not forget about the strippers and homeless people that are already roaming the street.  Horse crap + drunk people + strippers + homeless people = don’t touch anything and when you get back to the hotel first wash your hands in boiling water then give them a nice soak in some hand sanitizer.  PS…I saw girls walking on Bourbon Street with no shoes on!  AHHHH!

Now onto the good things about New Orleans…

The Food 
-Oh my gosh…the food was amazing.  I thought I knew what good food was since I grew up fairly close to Chicago, but Chicago food can’t touch the Cajun flavor of Nawlins.  One thing we especially liked was the Beignets (pronounced ben-yay).  These are French donuts that are light and fluffy and covered in a mountain of powdered suger.  Next up...Bananas Foster…this is made of rich vanilla ice cream covered with a delicious rum sauce with slices on banana in it.  Yum yum yum we are going to try to make this one at home. 

The Southern Charm
-The people were so nice.  You could just feel the southern hospitality everywhere and it was awesome. 

My Co-Workers
-I am planning to do a post on my job in the near future so I will elaborate on this sometime very soon.  All I can say is that I work for an awesome company with lots of very amazing, fun, and downright crazy people!

Houmas House
-One day we left the city and did a tour of a grain export facility, a barge trading company, and a plantation.  The grain export facility was amazing...they could unload a barge filled with 84,000 bushels of corn in 45 minutes (thats 4,704,000 pounds)!  The barge company was also really neat, but I really can't think of any highlights except for the fact that the tour guide's name was Bobby Brady =)  The highlight of the tour day for me was a place called Houmas House.  The house was built over 15 years from 1810 to 1825 and today is restored to its natural beauty.  In it's prime the plantation sat on 300,000 acres of gorgeous Live Oak Trees and thousands of acres of cotton and sugar cane. 

Isn't that house amazing?!  I want a plantation for Christmas...hint hint Brady =)